Wildfire Today

News and opinion about wildland fire

Wildfire Today

Tag: California

California: Schwarzenegger's fire preparedness

Author BillPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags

The California governor seems to be concerned about the wildfire potential this summer. In a press conference he was talking about the fire hazards around his home:

“I was not aware of it until an expert from the fire department told me that, ‘This is terrible. This is a fire hazard all around your house — you are living in the middle of it, get rid of this grass, get rid of these shrubs or you are going to be in trouble.’

He issued a lengthy Executive Order that detailed numerous policies that will affect CalFire this year. Here are some of the highlights:

Staff additional fire crews, fire engines, helitack crews, fire bulldozers, equipment and aviation resources as warranted based on fire threat conditions.

Assign a crew of four firefighters to selected CAL FIRE fire engines as warranted based on fire threat conditions.

Provide for immediate availability and utilization of the Supertanker aircraft.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the California National Guard prepare its aviation assets, and pre-position ground support equipment, as appropriate for immediate response to major wildfires and report to OES weekly on the status of all aircraft.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that CAL FIRE shall provide educational information to homeowners on defensible space and California Building and Fire Codes ignition-resistant building materials, and shall develop training for defensible space inspection and building ignitability in consultation with the Department of Insurance, OES, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that CAL FIRE shall conduct vigorous defensible space inspections, and shall impose fines and/or liens pursuant to applicable authority if necessary.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that to assist landowners to meet their 100-foot defensible space requirements to reduce hazardous vegetation and landscaping, CALFIRE, in consultation with the California Biomass/Biofuel Collaborative, may enter into contracts, agreements, and arrangements for the chipping, hauling, burning, or other methods of disposal of hazardous vegetation removed by landowners as required by Public Resources Code section 4291 and Government Code section 51182.

Fires in CA and AZ

Author BillPosted on Categories WildfireTags ,

Santa Anita fire near Sierra Madre, California:
It is now 584 acres and is 88% contained. All of the mandatory evacuation orders have been lifted. Here is an interesting quote from the Sierra Madre mayor:

“Early this morning the flames had raced to within a couple feet of our homes in the canyon and those brave firefighters … formed a perimeter with their bodies and their fire engines. It was a barricade of steel and water and human flesh and blood and they stopped the fire dead in its tracks.”

Just to be clear, there has been very little, if any, blood shed on the fire. They are reporting four minor injuries.

 

X fire:
This fire is just south of Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. It started at noon yesterday, Tuesday, and quickly grew to 2,000 acres. The name of the fire came from the nearby Ten-X campground. The name alone makes this fire interesting.

Local media is reporting that it started from a campfire and that two individuals are being questioned. There is a red flag warning today for winds at 15-20 with gusts up to 40, and an 8% relative humidity. These southwest winds could push the fire into the national park. Reinarz’s Type 2 Incident Management Team should arrive today.

Click on the map of the X fire below to see a larger version. The map shows heat detected last night (the red and orange areas) by satellites. The green area on the map is the Kaibab National Forest, and the gray area north of the fire is Grand Canyon National Park.

Santa Anita fire at Sierra Madre, California; update and map

Author BillPosted on Categories WildfireTags

Update: Tuesday, April 29, 9:37 AM MT–
As of this morning the fire is 538 acres and is 57% contained. Most of the contained fireline is in the eastern areas near the Sierra Madre residences. Southern California Interagency Incident Management Team 3 assumed command of the fire at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday. Approximately 150 homes and 400 people remain evacuated.

Live video from a news helicopter this morning showed no visible smoke, but this was from several thousand feet above the fire.

================================
Monday, April 28
Today the Santa Anita fire near Sierra Madre, California, made some upslope runs and also spread to the southwest. As of 8:00 PM today (Monday) it was 538 acres and 21% contained.

The evacuation boundary now extends west to Michillinda Avenue in Sierra Madre. The southern boundary of the current evacuation zone from west to east, is Fairview Avenue to Grove, north along Grove to Carter Avenue, east along Carter Avenue to Baldwin Avenue.

As of 8:00 p.m. Monday April 28, evacuations will be lifted for homes east of Baldwin Avenue.

Click on the map to see a larger version.

Map of the Santa Anita fire near Sierra Madre, produced by the incident at 3:00 PM local time, April 28, 2008.

The LA Times has a map of neighborhoods that have been evacuated.


Map and details about the fire from Inciweb. Photo from Pasadena Star News.

Santa Anita fire near Sierra Madre, California

Author BillPosted on Categories WildfireTags

The news is full of coverage of the 490-acre fire in southern California near the city of Sierra Madre. About half of the acres are in the city, and the other half are in the Angeles National Forest. Approximately 1,000 people have been evacuated from Sierra Madre residences.

The fire made a run in the early morning hours, crossing some fire lines, coming within a few yards of houses, and sending an ember shower onto the roofs of some homes. This reduced the containment from 30% to 23% as of 9 AM local time today.

HERE is a link to a live web camera on Mount Wilson above the fire.


Photo courtesy of CNN; map produced by the incident, 4/27/2008 @ 2000.

Ventura, Calif: $99 brush clearance inspection fee

Author BillPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags

The city of Ventura, California, recently sent 1,252 homeowners who live near brush-covered areas bills for $99 . The fee, which is not a tax, city officials claim, is to cover the cost of inspections to ensure they are in compliance with weed-abatement laws. The fire marshal said this is an attempt to recover the cost of hundreds of person-hours to do the inspections.

This is the first I have heard of fees to do weed-abatement inspections.

San Bernardino NF: Lone Pine Rx Fire

Author BillPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags

Earlier we covered the fact that the San Bernardino National Forest in California is blogging about their Lone Pine prescribed fire project. Usually the blog posts are written by the District Ranger and the Deputy District Ranger.

They had some unexpected developments recently, but during a lull in the action, they posted some very cool photos taken in 2006 of a helitorch in action. These photos are served up by their blog. Click on them to view them larger.